[1996-04-09-AJW-Champions] Aja Kong & Mima Shimoda vs Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Very good match, but Toyota is definitely my least favorite great wrestler. I try, but wow. Does she have to throw around Kong the same way she throws around everyone else? Does she have to be so fast-paced all the time? It's like she doesn't know how to make anything standout because she doesn't give anything she does, no matter how impressive, time to resonate. It seems like her matches don't have as much heat as those of her peers unless she's teasing false finishes. The match is good in spite of her involvement.

[Tim Evans]

My opinion might not count as much since I haven't seen much Joshi but so far, Toyota has been the one that actually stands out. She was the best thing about this match and seemed to be the only one that was actually giving effort. Aja looked like she would rather be anywhere else and no sell almost everything. Oh well, It was a good match and Shimoda sure has aged well. She's still stinking up women's matches in CMLL although it's not her fault.

[KB8]

That double stomp to the knee looked horrendous. Good grief. Back fist at the end looked pretty fuggin' face-breaky as well.

[Zenjo]

13m of 29m shown, not just here that's the way it was on the comm. This made it hard for me to get into it, and it didn't look anything special anyway.

[soup23]

Looks like PeteF skipped this one which I would be interested in as I thought it was a lot of fun and wish we would have seen the front half. Aja looked like a monster and it was cool to see Shimoda team up with someone else besides Mita. Good action and the best Toyota has looked in 1996 so far IMO.

[PeteF3]

If I skipped this it wasn't by design--the only matches I've done that with are the '92 Rumble (have it practically memorized), Hansen-Vader (can't watch the eye thing), the Toyota-Inoue draw, and the last part of the last Mr. Pogo 6-man. That said, I don't have any recollection of this match either way, though it's more likely I wrote up a post and it got lost in the figurative ether.

[tim]

My biggest gripe with Joshi so far this year is the length, so I appreciate that this is JIP. Good action in these last few minutes with some sick double stomps and a good ending.